The Portfolio Holder for Corporate Services
presented the first draft of the new Council Plan for 2020-2024.
The council plan set out the strategic direction of the council
over the next few years. The plan looked at the priorities and
actions to guide the effective use of all council resources.

The four priority areas contained in the plan
are as follows:

·
Outstanding place and environment

·
Outstanding homes and communities

·
Outstanding level of economic growth, productivity and
prosperity

·
Outstanding council and council services

The priorities and actions had been drawn up
by all councillors within the Cabinet. These had had further
oversight and input by the Strategic and Service Leads and
specifically Overview and Scrutiny Committees.

The Portfolio Holder for Corporate Services
identified changes to the wording in relation to poverty to address
the resolution of Council on 23 October 2019. There were further
discussions around changes to wording and more clarification to
certain objectives within the Plan itself as well as some
typographical changes which the Strategic Lead for Organisational
Development took note of.

RESOLVED that

1.the draft of the new Council Plan
2019-2024 taking into account the feedback from Overview and
Scrutiny Committee was considered and feedback and changes provided
on the priorities and actions.

2.the commitments in the Plan would need
to be assessed to determine financial and people resources
required.

The Portfolio Holder for Corporate Services
outlined the proposed consultation to support the ‘careful
choices’ the council would need to make in the coming years.
She reminded Members that this helped to inform the council’s
decision-making process as well as raising awareness to the public
of the financial constraints the council was facing. The council
had a £2.7m budget deficit which needed to be dealt with over
the next 2-3 years in order to be able to produce a balanced
budget. The council’s strategy includes developing a strategy
for commercialisation, ensuring the council was ‘fit for
purpose’ to deliver the Council Plan and additionally making
‘careful choices’ about the services it provided.

It was proposed that a consultation be sent to
3000 residents on a random basis, to Town and Parish Councils and
placed on-line. This would provide a statistically reliable body of
feedback which could then be extrapolated to be representative of
the views of the district. Other feedback would also help support
the findings.

RESOLVED that

the detail of the
consultation be agreed with the consultation to commence on 12
January 2020.

REASON

tohelp engage
residents and businesses in the financial issues facing the
council.